thank you for joining us today. "cnn newsroom" continues right now with ashley banfield. >> thank you, carol. hello, everyone. welcome to the program. talk about triumph that crippled, helpless and altogether nasty carnival cruise ship is finally due to reach port in a few hours and we are positioned in the air. the sea, on land, and all of it to show you as this ship comes in. and a south african model is dead, her boyfriend, the world famous "blade runner," now officially charged with her murder. we begin with a shocking valentine's day murder. the man charged, double amputee and london olympic star oscar pistorius. the victim, his girlfriend, and model, reeva steenkamp. it happened at pistorius' upscale home in pretoria, south africa. amanda davis is a cnn international sports anchor and she has interviewed pistorius. she's covering the developments in london. what more do we know, amanda?

>> hi, ashleigh. i can tell you that oscar pistorius has been charged with the murder of his girlfriend. he's set to appear in court in pretoria in south africa on friday morning. this all happened very much as we were waking up here in london. reports of a fatal shooting at the house of the 26-year-old oscar pistorius. initially there were reports that it was perhaps a valentine's surprise that had gone horribly wrong, that pistorius woke to what he thought was an intruder and shot that intruder dead. the police, it has to be said, have said they don't know where those stories have come from, so throughout the course of the day, it was then confirmed that it was, in fact, pistorius' girlfriend, reeva steenkamp, as you said, who was shot and killed. and then it has emerged it is pistorius who has been charged with her murder. >> this is devastating to hear

that is a report that's out there. do we know that has been knocked down, amanda? that this might have been a valentine's day surprise gone terribly wrong? because there have been statements made in the past about grabbing a gun when i heard my alarm go off, by pistorius. he's been interviewed in the past and said these things. is that just a rumor or is that something the police are actually trying to follow? >> we don't know. there is still a lot of questions here that are very much unanswered. what we have heard officially is from pretoria police spokeswoman. she gave something of a news conference outside pistorius' home. because of the south african laws, a lot has to be left unsaid until the official court hearing which has been postponed until friday morning. but she did say, we understand there have been reports that this was an intruder, an unfortunate accident. she said we do not know where those came from. >> it is so distressing. amanda davies for us live in

london, thank you very much. oscar pistorius was no stranger to guns. that according to michael socklov, who wrote a profile of pistorius in "the new york times" magazine. he spent some time with pistorius two years ago in pretoria and he says that hanging out with him, he found that he was a unique and complex young man. michael is here with me now to talk about this. michaele, is this a surprise to you, to hear this? given what you know about the temperament of this young athlete? >> it's a shock to me. you know, oscar is a young guy. he's an adrenaline freak. he drives his cars very fast, 140 miles an hour. so he does everything fast. he's impulsive, but i never saw him angry, i never saw him violent. he's a very likable guy. >> but when you -- >> yes, it's a shock. >> when you wrote this in your piece, hanging out with pistorius can be a great deal of fun, you also quickly understand that he is a little more -- or

that he is more than a little crazy. is that said in tongue and cheek, in fun, or do you find him to be somewhat reckless? >> i absolutely find him to be reckless. certainly the way he drives, he had a speed boat accident in which he seriously injured himself. i worried about him after i left. but i worried about him hurting himself. here, the allegation is that he has hurt someone else. whether it was in anger or not is something we don't know right now, but i didn't see him as angry. you know, sitting here, i have no way of knowing what really happened. i don't know that any of us know that at this point. >> and then you also mentioned that at one point, he said, a security alarm had gone off in his house and that he had the previous night grabbed his toed out to be nothing. when you hear what amanda has been widely recordsed but the police have not confirmed this could have been a valentine's day gone wrong, does that fit

with the character of how you know him to be, how he feels about security? >> well yes. i have no way of knowing what happened but i know when i was with him the night before one night, he said oh, i heard a noise in my house and i grabbed my gun and came downstairs. that's not terribly unusual in south africa. people are very fearful, you know. it's a society in which there's a huge gap between rich and poor and the people who have more money feel threatened. now, with what we know now, maybe oscar, as courageous as he is on so many fronts, maybe he feels overly threatened. maybe he is is a fearful person. i don't know what happened. i didn't see him as an angry person. that doesn't mean he didn't strike out in anger. as a writer you never want to pretend you know someone better than you do. >> the police said there had been domestic incidents in the past at this home. i don't know that it meant between these two people in this relationship. but they said that they are not strangers to that home in terms

of domestic incidents they've had to respond to. i just want to read one more thing that you wrote. >> sure. >> he suggested to you, when you said to him you hadn't used guns before, maybe you should go to the range. maybe you should do this more if you practice, i think you could be pretty deadly. knowing now that he said these to you in this light, that has to be a bit haunting. >> it is haunting. you know, when we were at the range, we were target shooting. there's no doubt that oscar likes guns. i will say one thing about the domestic incidents, i don't know anything about that. it was never reported before. and i don't want to be in the position of defending oscar. i have no idea what happened. it should be noted he has a roommate at that house, a mixed martial arts fighter who was a friend of his. so whatever happened in that house may have involved oscar, it could have also involved his roommate or someone else. i think that, you know, we don't have the ability to do great police reporting at this point from south africa as we might in new york. so i don't know.

>> and we should say, that -- it's interesting that you mention this about the roommate with this background. in marshatial arts. police said these two are the only two who were in the home at the time of the shooting. i think you're right. a lot of questions. no one should be guessing or second guessing until the investigators have had a chance to go in and look at this. very distressing all around. thank you for coming in so last minute with all of your insight having time to spend with him. michael, from "the new york times" magazine. >> by all accounts we should say reeva steenkamp was looking forward to valentine's day. she sent out this tweet just yesterday. the fashion model saying, what do you have up your sleeve for your love tomorrow? as we know now, she didn't live to celebrate today. shot dead allegedly by her boyfriend, oscar pistorius. friends and family say that she was a loving and consider eight young woman, fun to be with. certainly she was just

beautiful. the managing director of the model agency that represented her spoke about her and her relationship with pistorius earlier today. >> they were people that were going out, they seemed happy. i can't comment as to as i said the intimate relationship that they had behind closed doors, be but they looked happy as any couple would when out. >> one model who -- cruise that turned out to be anything of a vacation is hours away from finally reaching dry land. thousands of passengers will finally get a hot meal, a hot shower, and apparently some cold hard cash too. it's chevy truck month! silverado was also recognized for the lowest cost of ownership. hey, what are you gonna do with it?

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. this may not look like heaven to you, but let me be honest, for 3,143 passengers and 1,086 crew members aboard the carnival "triumph" this is really going to be heaven. trust me. not soon enough. they will reach this spot. "triumph's" arrival in the port of mobile, alabama, has been

delayed yet again. now it looks like they are not going to reach dry land until midnight eastern time. that ship has been marooned in the gulf of mexico for five days and let me just say that marooned is putting it lightly. there's very little power. there are few working toilets and the food supplies have been dwindling. a lifeline of sorts arrived yesterday when a coast guard helicopter dropped off a generator. the pictures capturing it as it was being flown to the deck. the "triumph" owes its rescue to these, four big sturdy tugboats pulling the massive ship over rough seas all the way to mobile. we are following the progress by land and by sea and as well by air. cnn's david mattingly is dockside. victor blackwell is floating in mobile bay. david mattingly, let me start with you, what is the latest in terms of these poor people and their effort to just get back to some kind of normalcy? >> that's right, ashleigh. they just can't seem to catch a

break. the conditions with the current and the wind are such that it's slowing down their arrival. it's getting pushed back hours from what had been anticipated yesterday. but when they finally do get here, they're going to find that there's going to be food waiting for them, there's going to be busses here to take them to a hotel if they want it. you know there's going to be so many people, long, long overdue for a very hot shower. and if they want, they have a bus also that will take them all the way back to texas if they want to go back and reclaim their car and drive home later tonight. ashleigh? >> david, stand by for a moment. i want to get out to victor blackwell. literally monitoring the seas. what are the seas like and the weather and the wind and why these delays? >> well, let's talk about the wind first. about 15 miles an hour and that has been a concern from the start when this was just kind of drifting around and was pushed 90 miles north. they were supposed to go to

progresso, mexico, they came to mobile, alabama, because of the winds. light chop on the water and 45 degrees. these people were going to cozumel to a resort with summer-like temperatures. they certainly don't have one of these. i want to show you back here. these two boats with the orange life savers or life rings there, that's mobile and alabama. those are the pilot boats that will head out to guide the "triumph" through mobile bay. we're told they're going to leave here in about an hour, but that could change as the time goes back. eight miles from the sea buoy where the pilots will likely climb on board and guide it into port. hopefully they come in during the daylight because we've been told by the port manager that this ship cannot be towed in during darkness because it's unsafe. if they get to the mouth of the bay at dusk, the question is, will they have to wait until morning to come in. we're going to try to get an answer to that. hopefully they can get in and get back to the port before dusk tonight, ashleigh? >> oh, dear. i mean, you're right, they

cannot catch a break. now we're hearing the delay is until midnight. and like you said, i see you have your hat on. the temperatures, i think the low is in the low 60s, like 63 degrees. for those who have been sweating it out on a hot stinky ship, sure the cool air is welcome, but are you kidding me? victor blackwell, thank you. appreciate the position that you've taken to monitor this. also our sandra endo is continuing to monitor things from the air, flying in a chopper all day. going to reload that chopper with fuel, get it up and be able it to monitor. not all the passengers are likely to be too thrilled with the $500 and the free airfare as a compensation package. and no doubt, some of them are going to chart a course straight for the courthouse. will there be any roadblocks in the way of that effort if they want to seek that effort? we're going to talk about that dynamic with our legal panel in just a couple of minutes. jo we are now getting a clearer

picture of the cop killer christopher dorner and his final hours and the encounter that set everything in motion to catch him. karen and jim reynolds walked into their cabin and came face to face with dorner on tuesday. bound, gagged, and tied up with plastic ties and extension cords, this couple miraculously was able to free themselves within minutes of him leaving. they both were able it to get to their knees, pull off the pillow cases on their heads and the turning point, karen, getting up and managing to get to her feet eventually, shuffle to the open bedroom door, shuffle to the bedroom door and open it, eventually finding a cell phone on a coffee table and calling 911. >> did you think he was going to kill you then? >> not -- well -- >> when he had me laying on the ground, yes, i really did. i thought he's changed his mind, he was trying to calm us down and get us in here and he's going to do it. >> dorner told the couple, quote, i just want to clear my

name. they say. his ex-girlfriend who dated dorner for five years says she, quote, sort of expected violence. here's what she says about his personality. >> i don't think there's any way to justify someone going out and killing someone because they're stressed out of work. there are ways and outlets of releasing stress. chris was one of those people who bottled up a lot of his emotions and wasn't good at expressing himself. >> in just 30 minutes the lingering questions about police tactics, something called the burnerses that were called in and whether that cabin with dorner still inside was deliberately burned down or not. yes! one phillips' colon health probiotic cap each day helps defend against these digestive issues with three strains of good bacteria. live the regular life. phillips'.

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all right. so until now, a trial we've been covering with jodi arias on the stand has been more about sex than it's been about the actual murder of the victim in the case named travis alexander. jodi arias admits to stabbing her ex-boyfriend 27 times and then to also slitting his throat and shooting him in the head, talk about overkill. she says it was all in self-defense. and after seven days on the stand, yes, seven days of

listening to this under her own lawyer's questioning, she's starting to talk a lot less about all the twisted sex stuff and a little bit more about all of the violence and how she's a victim and how she compares herself to a helpless little dog. >> if he were to get mad at you, you would shake? >> yes. like my nerves, like how a chihuahua shakes, they're just kind of tremble a little bit. >> a chihuahua with the shakes, it's a very odd comparison, yes, but strategic, make no mistake. strategic to her image and, of course, to her defense. which up until now has been quite easy because it's only her questions doing the asking. let's bring in the legal brains, beth karas, correspondent for "in session" on our sister network truetv and sunny hostin, former federal prosecutor. i have the tough ladies on today. i have talked at length about how direct examination is the -- is the easy part.

your lawyer coddles you when you're on the stand, and then it changes the dynamic changes when the cross-examination happens. but beth karas, start this for me, will you, when talking about all the sex and the relationship with this ex-boyfriend, is this a strategy to suggest that he was -- he had some kind of double life as a mormon and elder in the church, but then with her was twisted and she alleg alleges pedophile? is that what this is all about? >> yes. exactly. and, in fact, they have this allegation that he was a pedophile or at least attracted to little boys and little girls and it's absolutely uncorrobora uncorroborated. it's jodi arias' word. that's all the jury has right now. they want the jury to believe that she had this little secret of his and he knew that it would destroy him professionally in his church, in his social circle, if anyone knew. she threatened to expose it.

the physical violence escalated to two or three after she learned this and so when her experts testify after jodi arias is finally done, whenever that is, they'll talk about her state of mind and why this overkill. some say you know what, this is overkill of his reputation right now. >> i'm glad you brought that up. sunny, i want you to discuss that part, because seven days, seven days of beating up a victim, you know, a murder victim, someone who is no longer here to defend himself and we're not even at the killing yet, which i need to interrupt for a moment -- carnival cruise at this point, ladies stand by if you. let's go live to the news conference and listen to what they're saying. >> the last name is thornt t-h-o-r-n-t-o t-h-o-r-n-t-o-n, senior vice president. it's a long title. just senior vice president, revenue planning.

. >> go. >> okay. everybody got that. okay. we'd like to start by telling you that the carnival "triumph" now is getting in close position at the sea buoy at the entrance of the main channel coming into mobile. the channel is a long channel. in normal operation, if the ship had normal power and actually when carnival cruiselines used to operate from here in the port of mobile, that transit would normally take three hours. but because of the circumstances of the power of the ship, we're expecting that the transit will take somewhere between seven and ten hours. once the ship reaches the sea buoy and starts into the channel. so we have all of the logistics set up for that, so -- meaning that the pilots bring the ship in are going out to meet the ship, we actually have cows t tom -- customs and border patrol agents going out to meet the

ship which will help us expedite the process and our first response team from the carnival organization going out as well to meet the ship and to transit with the ship coming in as it comes in. i just want to caution everybody, be very clear, this is going to be a long day. this is not a process that's going to happen fast. there's no way we can actually speed up the process to get the ship alongside sooner. so just understand that it's going to be a long day as we get the ship alongside but we're making every effort we can to get the ship alongside here in mobile as quickly as possible. >> yes. >> what our plan is for today in terms of updating all of you, we'll be out periodically as we have more, new information. as of this point in time we don't have anything more to tell you other than the logistics we're talking about right now, but as we have more information, new information for you today,

we'll provide that on a periodic basis as we go through today. >> you said they're close to the buoy. how close? >> i don't have that information. but it's relatively close at this point. >> and right now, what's the estimated time for docking? >> well, as we said, the ship is close to the sea buoy. once it reaches the sea buoy it will be a roughly seven to ten-hour transit. and at that point in time the ship will be alongside here at the cruise terminal in mobile. >> will carnival pay for rooms for people here in mobile for passengers who want to stay? >> let me finish the comments and come back to what we're doing for the guest logistics. part of that was in the information you've received already. i'll come back to that. i just want to two over a couple things that we wanted to update you on that we've done since we've done our last carnival statement. an update. so we have mobilized about 200 of our carnival staff that are here in mobile to assist the guests and our crew and the

operations and logistics here as well as what's going to happen later on today. we fully coordinated the whole process with the coast guard, with all the authorities, obviously the city of mobile, with the port here in mobile, and we've got all that coordination well under way. we have delivered additional provisions to the carnival "triumph" that happened last night and the ship is in excellent shape now and will be fully provisioned to provide all the food services for the guests certainly by the time the ship docks later this evening. we did also deliver one additional generator to the ship and this generator was helpful mostly last night in providing some extra power and allowing us to provide additional hot food service. so the guests had a better, improved meal service last night because of the addition of this generator. so i thank you all for your time and as i said, we'll be updating you periodically through the day. >> could you just address that question, many people have wondered why is it that they

have to get on a bus in new orleans when you could provide them with accommodations here according to the officials of mobile. >> let me answer the first question first and come to that question. what is happening with guests? i think we have updated this in our statement before. so everyone understands what's happening with guests today. as they come off the ship today they have two options really that they've already kind of told us which one they wanted to do. most of the guests will be boarding motorcoach transportation, going to new orleans, to stay in a hotel tonight to get a hot meal, to relax, and we've arranged for a very large bank of charter flights for friday that will take them back to houston. and then the ongoing transportation for them from houston, if they have their car parked in galveston, we'll be providing that transportation to get them back to their car. >> no plans to stay in mobile. >> the second option that people had was if they needed to be home right away, we have arranged for motorcoach

transportation for them to leave directly from mobile and proceed directly to galveston or to houston. and that service will be provided for people that want it. we have -- the numbers of people that needed to do that. now we've also accommodated, if plans change and guests come off the ship and want to do something different than they planned, we have plenty of capacity to allow them to go on the motorcoach or allow them to go on the hotel situation and so we've got extra capacity in case people change their minds as they come off the ship. let me come back to -- >> tonight because we had heard if it arrives after dark it won't be allowed to come in. >> our understanding right now the ship will be alongside this evening. >> even if it comes in after dark? >> well, the ship will start in as they said very shortly. we're at the sea buoy. the ship will begin the transit during daylight hours. >> is there any possibility if it arrives after dark it will be held off? >> our understanding is that will not happen.

let me -- >> [ inaudible ]. >> why not do it four days ago? >> let me address one question at a time, please. i'll address your question relatively to mobile. the question was, why didn't we stage all of this hotel operation and air transp portion from mobile -- air transportation from mobile? the answer to that is, when we had our logistics expert look at what the air charter requirements were going to be and the number of people we're going to move and the size of the aircraft that we were going to need, it was not feasible for us to do it here in mobile. the new orleans airport was the best facility for us to arrange that. and to make that happen and it was not feasible here in mobile. here in mobile, we will have a lot of ongoing commerce for the city in the sense that we're going to have hotel needs for our crew, we're going to have suppliers and other things that will be needed to be accommodated here in mobile. there will be commerce related to this operation for mobile. it was not logistically feasible for us to do the air charter operation from mobile.

>> so has there been any injuries or fatalities on board? there you one report of a fatality on board the ship. is that true? >> there has not been any fatalities aboard the ship. >> injury? >> illnesses aboard the ship? >> there was one illness aboard the ship early on and that was a patient that had a preexisting condition with dialysis. that patient was taken off the ship on one of our sister ships the "elation" and transferred to a medical facility and taken care of. >> one more question. one more question. >> [ inaudible ]. . >> no information -- >> why the ship went out to start with -- >> about -- [ inaudible ] any response to that? >> i'm sorry. the question again, please. >> families waiting, for their loved ones to come in, have had no information, unable to get information? >> okay. we have a care team, we call it a care team with carnival cruise lines that's going to be here on-site very shortly to provide

assistance to the families, provide them with more information and to take care as best we can of their needs and they'll be on site shortly. they're dressed in a carnival care team shirt logo and they'll be visible and helpful for the families. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. >> okay. wow. talk about being on the hot seat. while standing in front of the press. that was terry thornton in marketing for carnival cruise lines trying to answer as many questions as possible. here are the headlines. port authority president going to speak about the logistics but i think we got the big headline, that is this, that ship, no matter whether it is light or dark, is going to be alongside the dock come rain or shine in about anywhere from seven to ten hours. originally we had heard if it gets to the mouth of the channel, it can't trans -- it can't cross that channel or at least go through the channel in the dark. according to mr. thornton, doesn't matter, that will be alongside shore in about seven

to ten hours. not only that, but they said that they're sending customs and border patrol agents out to the ship now to try to clear all of these passengers just to stop that from slowing the process once they actually get onshore. carnival reps are heading out to join and board that ship as well. he said this is going to be a very long day. i think that's the understatement of the day. but did mention that picture that we showed you of the generator being brought on to the deck by the helicopter, the generator getting on ship actually provided for hot meals that were dropped off as well. he said this ship is in excellent shape now regarding the food provisions and even hot food because of the generator you're seeing in the air being dropped on board. no fatalities, important to note. when we come back, it may be partial steam ahead for that ship, but steaming mad passengers who get off may be headed for the courts. do they have any recourse? that's coming up. i'm a conservative investor.

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call... and lock in your rate for 12 months today. liberty mutual insurance. responsibility. what's your policy? we are following the odyssey of a disabled carnival cruise ship as it tries to make its way to safe haven in alabama. it's being towed to important five days after an engine knocked out power and even worse the ship's sanitary systems, many of that, all in the gulf of mexico. the ship's e ta has been pushed back, seven to ten hours from dry land. you can bet when the passengers get their land legs back some will use them to head straight to the lawyers' offices.

i'm happy to be joined by mitchelle, the lead attorney of the cos sta concordia, that was that ship in italy, a number of deaths in that case. the reason i wanted to ask you to join us on this story, you have been an expert in mariners law which often times is the guide when it comes to what the rights are of passengers on board ships and i can't imagine these people will not want to sue somebody or get something. >> well in the costa concordia case, we sued carnival for over half a billion dollars, including the punitive damages that we're requesting on behalf of the victims and the families of those that perished in that terrible tragedy. in this case, i think we should end up asking for a billion dollars. there has to be something done to protect these passengers. these people save their money to gop go on the drips -- >> this is less serious than the concordia. there's just inconvenience and

discomfort on the ship. these are the first live pictures coming into cnn of the ship under tow by i think now four tugboats that have been dispatched to try to get that ship back to mobile, alabama, and may i just say that you cannot tell from the picture, but the speed they're going is about the same as your home lawn mower. so that is a laborious effort, at best, to describe how that ship is coming back into shore. again, search to ten hours until it makes its way past the 50 plus miles it still needs to go. again, i just want to touch op this issue -- on this issue, with concordia, when you have wrongful deaths as alleged by those who are suing, it's a different story than those on board this ship in this picture. it's a terrible inconvenience, very uncomfortable, but they have tickets with small print that say you can't sue us for anything, effectively, don't they? >> okay. just to be perfectly clear, i'm actually representing family members who lost relatives on the coka concordia and i don't mean to minimize their losses.

>> sure. >> 32 people died. >> right. >> there's a horrible tragedy. nonetheless it's the same parent corporation, carnival cruises. carnival is the parent corporation of the "costa concordia" and they have limitations they seek to enforce in these cases. they include form selection causes where people can sue and they also include limitations on damages and i believe and we alleged in our lawsuit ta there's a fraud involved in these tickets. what happens is people nowadays when they purchase these tickets, they don't talk to an agent from carnival directly. they typically go on-line and they click different windows or they go through an agent and the agent, the travel agent, will then go on-line and they'll click different windows and everybody who has purchased anything on-line knows there's a series of limitations and you have to click i agree to go ahead. when we analyze that website after the incident involving the "costa concordia" it turns out the limitations weren't included on their website. >> there is a loophole.

that may be something that is exercised in this case as well. again, very different cases, but effectively mariners law, tickets with limitations, websites without them. i have to wrap that. thanks so much. i appreciate it. as we watch the live pictures coming in and the breaking news happening. i want to alert our viewers to turn in this weekend. we have a program set up for you, "cruise from hell stranded at sea" a cnn special that will air sunday night at 7:30 p.m., 10:30 p.m. on cnn as we continue to watch the live progress of the carnival "triumph" and all of those people on board who cannot wait to make it back. nike, nike dropping an ad featuring an olympic runner who is now charged in the shooting death of his girlfriend. the ad featuring oscar pistorius reads this "i am the bullet in the chamber." next we're going to look at how companies protect their brand in times of trouble. our panel will weigh in. teaching

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live pictures coming in to us, some of the first pictures of the carnival cruise "triumph" as it rolls into 60 miles away from port. you can see some of the passengers who are out on their balconies now wrapping themselves in what looks like some of the bedding because while they were in tropical temperatures, those temperatures have dropped precipitously as they get closer to shore in the gulf. look at that. you can see them all wrapped up on deck. the temperature in mobile, alabama, i think the low today was somewhere around low 60s. it could be somewhere around 63 degrees as the tugboats tug the "triumph" in all of its 900 feet and 14 stories in to shore. again, these are some of the first pictures live coming in to cnn from our helicopter, cnn exclusive for you, to see the progress of this ship as it makes it into shore and the headline, it will make it into shore, no matter what has been

reported prior. the company has made a decision, dark or not dark, it is going to be going through that channel with those tugboats to make it dockside, hopefully between seven to ten hours. those tugboats working laboriously but it is a sluggish pace, make no mistake, they are going as fast as a lawn mower, about six to seven knots. if you know knots, that's not much more than miles per hour, somewhere around seven miles an hour. it is slow and some of the signs that have been hanging off, they're not in your image right now, but some of the signs that passengers have been hanging overboard have read "please help us." that's quite something. the carnival corporation is spending its -- is sending its representatives out to sea to meet up with these tugs and the ship. you can see the supplies on the tugboats and the workers also alongside that ship, but the customs and border patrol agents will be meeting up with the ship

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try align. it's a probiotic that fortifies your digestive system with healthy bacteria 24/7. because your insides set the tone. stay in the groove with align. the live pictures of the helicopter hovering aboard one of the tugboats that is pulling that cruise ship that's been stranded the at sea, the carnival "triumph," stranded in the gulf of mexico. it left a week ago on what was supposed to be only a few days at sea. but for five days, they've had no power, very little air conditioning, if any, very little sanitation. food has been at a, you know, a pretty tough get. some people hoarding it. and terrible stories that have come from passengers who have been on board. it is getting close to land, though. as it is under tow, let me go live out to the ship. i believe that larry porray, who is traveling with his daughter

rebecca, and we actually interviewed rebecca's mom yesterday, larry, can you hear me? >> yes, i hear you fine. >> how are you fine. >> how are you doing out there? how are things on board? >> it's pretty chaotic right now. we're trying to fiend out what the plans are and what time we're actually going to be on land. >> and what are they telling you? >> well, at first they told us about 6:00 this afternoon. and the last word we just got was 11:00 tonight. we don't know. >> and we're told that you're being -- being supplied with additional food and that a generator was on board heating up the food, in fact, one of the vice presidents of carnival just held a news conference saying that the conditions are improving. is that what you're seeing as well on board, larry? >> well, after six days, yeah, it's finally improving. but we just got hot food yesterday. >> and what about the sanitation? there have been horrible reports. even one from your daughter,

rebec rebecca, and allie as well who is carmel taylor's daughter, we talked to both of their moms yesterday. they said that their daughters reported that they were being asked to use plastic bags to go to the bathroom and there was sewage on the hallways and the walls. is that what you witnessed as well, larry? >> yes, we were told to use plastic bags and tie them up and put them in the hallway and they'd pick them up. and once the commodes got full to use the shower. and, of course, when they got full, the boat would tilt one by or the other with the wind, it would slosh out on the floor and then run out in the halls and soak up into the carpet. >> bewe know the stabilization system, you know, it's got to be powered, so when the power went out, the stabilization system was compromised and the ship was listing and that's what you're saying, as the ship continued to tip and list, that the sewage would -- would slosh about, is it just the cabin? is it the hallway?

is it everywhere? is it just in small areas? >> well, i mean, it runs down the wall from one floor to the next. it's running out of somebody's bathroom out into the hallway all the way across and because we're sleeping in the hallway, you know, you've had to -- my friend carmel actually had to change his mattress out for another one because it was laying in raw sewage. >> oh, lord. >> it's not been good. >> larry, i'm seeing passengers, we're seeing a live picture of the ship you're on right now as you're speaking with us. and some of the passengers are wrapped in blankets. some of them are hanging signs off of their balconies, one report a sign said "please help us." >> yes. >> it sounds like you are really and truly in a desperate situation. is that what you're feeling as well? >> there have been times when it was just so scary, you know, we did all we could to keep our daughters calm. >> are your -- are your daughters okay? one of them reported -- larry,

one of your daughters reported to her mom that she was truly terrified and that was the last communication. i don't know if it was your daughter rebecca or whether it was carmel's daughter, allie, but that was the last communication they had. and that was i believe sunday. >> well, they were both crying they were so scared. and, you know, we're trying to tell them, there's nothing to worry about. and as soon as we get them calmed down, the electricity goes off and the doors slam shut locking all sections and it's, like, everybody gets scared then. why did the doors wham shut. they are huge heavy doors and nobody tells us until later that, you know, electricity malfunction, you know, the emergency electricity went out. >> larry, we're watching -- >> all of a sudden it went from bad to worse. >> we're watching as one of the helicopters is hovering above your ship where you are right now. dropping something on deck to some of the crew who are up on deck as well. and it looks as though a lot of passengers are in the background watching all of this. have you been able to witness some of these emergency operations when they bring food

and supplies and the generator via these hovering helicopters to the ship? have you witnessed this? >> yes. yesterday we saw the helicopters, you know, land, you know -- drop bags full of supplies and they would go out to a cargo ship and fill it up again and drop back nets full of spli supplies. we've had several carnival boats that would drop food by, stop by, and it would take four hours. and another couple of ships that would give us food. it was because one of those ships had cooked it on theirs and transported it to us so we could eat it warm over here. >> so, larry, it sounds at the very, very least despite the desperate conditions that you're having to endure there that you are getting information or you're at least able to see some of these rescue operations, i'm not sure what i'm witnessing right now, there's a basket

being lowered from a helicopter onto the deck of the ship you're on. i don't know what's in it. i don't know if it's medical or if it's something else, but you're at least getting some kind of information from carnival, is that accurate? are or do you feel like -- i hate to say left in the dark given the situation you're in, but do you feel adequately informed? >> we're definitely not adequately informed. we'll get information and all of a sudden telling us by 6:00 this is going to happen or, you know, seven miles away be got a tugboat. and it's hours and hours late, the information they tell us hey, you know, 6:30 this is going to happen or it's midnight before something happens. here we are looking for hope, hey, 6:00 it's going to get better and 6:00 comes and goes and all of a sudden an announcement at 8:00. well, we're running a little behind schedule. it's, like, no joke, you know? so -- and then, you know, there was a scare yesterday or the day before -- running out of water and, you know, people were

starting to get concerned as to, you know, hoarding water. we may not have water so it's been not -- >> i can tell you this, this literally happened live on our airways before i came to you. we are looking at the shim and signs being hung after the aft of the ships hung over the balconies, signs i cannot read, but you can see them waving at our cnn helicopter hovering live over this ship. by the way, larry, where on the ship are you? are you at the stern, are you midship, are you at the bow, where are you in the roughly 14 stories? >> we're right in the middle in the casino area and that's where all the information's been given out, and you have to line up to sign up for this, or sign up for that. this whole cruise has been about getting in line and waiting for something. we just got out of the line about how we're going to get off the boat and there's another line about anything that you purchased and you got to run through customs, you got to go through that line and every time there's food, there's a two- to

three-hour line there. to the bathroom there's a line. it's just ridiculous. >> well, we got word from terry thornton who is with the carnival cruise lines the vp who say it may not be until midnight, you may get relief before then. he said leave on our air it should be between seven and ten hours before you get dockside in mobile, alabama, that you will be landing dockside sometime between the next seven to ten hours, so hopefully that's a bit of a relief. can you tell me about the temperatures? i know it was very hot, and now you're going into some colder temperatures. what's that like right now for you? >> right now, it's cold. you can't go out on to the deck. we're all outside and everyone is forced inside. when we broke down sunday night when the fire and everything, everybody went outside because it was so hot inside because you couldn't stand to be inside. you couldn't stand in your room. you couldn't stay inside. everybody went outside. and whenever the cold -- you know, we got here to the cold where it's forcing everybody

inside and they're wearing bathrobes to try to stay warm, you know? so, it's tricky. >> i'm speaking live with larry poret who is a passenger on board the carnival "triumph." he is speaking with me live as a helicopter, one of the contractors, hovers over above the top deck of the ship. larry, is there any possible way -- i know you said you're midship, is there any way that you can get to an upper deck that we may be able to see you as we speak to yoyou? how far away are you -- i know it's 14 stories. that's not an easy request. are you close to one of the top decks? >> we'd have to climb five decks to get up there to the closest one. it would take, you know -- >> i'm not going to ask you to do that. you've been through enough. that's for sure. what do some of those signs say? have you seen any of the signs that your fellow passengers have been hanging outsideco balconies? >> we got our phone and took

pictures of them yesterday, they say, help us, you know, we are in need of help, you know, we need food, you know, that kind of thing. so, yeah, they're all kind of help and distress signals. some of them are kind of lighthearted, you know, but most of them are sincere. >> larry, at the very least are you feeling as though you are at the end of this really awful odyssey knowing that you're now within view of land at least and that you are just hours away finally from getting off of that disabled ship? >> yeah. and i think that i can probably speak for most people, i don't know how much more we could have took. i mean, it was really getting to be stressful and, you know, really taking a toll on everybody just, you know, it's, like, we're counting the days and, you know, when you get up in the morning the first thing you're thinking about is how many hours before i can go to sleep and get this day behind me and get closer to home. >> larry, i wish you the best of luck. good luck to you.